Why Does the House Even Have a Chaplain? Tradition
It’s a constitutional fight over religion that no one ever wanted to have.
Still the House chaplain.
Photographer: Alex Wong/Getty Images
Now that we are finished with the spectacle of the U.S. House chaplain being forced out, then withdrawing his resignation and returning to his post, it’s a good time to ask a question that may have been bothering you all along: Why, exactly, does Congress, bound by the establishment clause of the Constitution, have a paid chaplain to deliver prayers and minister to its members?
If this arrangement were being set up today, it would almost certainly be held unconstitutional under contemporary judicial interpretation of the First Amendment. Since a key decision made in 1989, the U.S. Supreme Court has addressed most concerns about the government endorsement of religion by asking whether a given action sends a message to some believers that they are favored members of the political community and to others that they are disfavored.